The 9415 signatories include Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus,activist Susan Carland,lawyer and advocate Mariam Veiszadeh,actor Bryan Brown and a Victorian Multicultural Commissioner,Judy Tang.
The letter,which has been collecting signatures for 24 hours,is also calling on the Prime Minister to grant permanent protection to more than 5100 Afghan refugees who are in Australia on temporary visas and to lift the ban on resettlement of refugees to Australia.
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“We don’t know how to process this or react. We feel hopeless,” said Zaki Haidari,a refugee who is in Australia on a temporary protection visa. “Many of us have loved ones in Kabul and we desperately need to get our families out. This has proven once again that it is not safe for us to go back and not safe for our families.”
Mr Haidari is a member of the Hazara people,who primarily live in the mountainous region of central Afghanistan and who have been persecuted in the country over multiple generations.
“What will it take for the Australian government to give us permanent protection? To enable us to bring our families here for safety once and for all?”
Two decades after it was ousted from power by the US,the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan this week.Hundreds of thousands of civilians are fleeing,setting off a humanitarian crisis.